CBI, SIT to probe Bengal post-election violence: High court

The Calcutta high court on Thursday ordered separate probes by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the state police into alleged post-poll violence in West Bengal this year

The Calcutta high court on Thursday ordered separate probes by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the state police into alleged post-poll violence in West Bengal this year.

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A five-judge bench headed by acting chief justice Rajesh Bindal said the CBI will probe the serious allegations of rape and murder and a three-member SIT those of arson and loot, under the court’s supervision.

“All the cases where, as per the report of the committee, the allegations are about murder and crime against women regarding rape and attempt to rape, shall be transferred to CBI for investigation. It is made clear that it shall be a court-monitored investigation,” the order stated.

The investigation of SIT, comprising three senior IPS officers Soumen Mitra (commissioner of Kolkata Police), Suman Bala Sahoo (DG communication) and Ranveer Kumar (ADG administration) will also be monitored by the court and overseen by a retired judge of the Supreme Court. The high court also directed the Mamata Banerjee government to pay compensation to the victims of violence directly into their bank accounts after due verification.

The state has said it will appeal the verdict.

“I don’t see it as a setback. It is a judgment passed. If the litigant, which in this case is the state, finds that the verdict is not in its interest or beyond law, we have the right to challenge. We are waiting for the order. We will definitely move the Supreme Court,” said Sanjay Basu, advocate who appeared for the DGP of West Bengal along with senior advocates including Abhishek Manu Singhvi. He added that the observations in the order are not correct.

Soon after the results of the assembly elections were declared on May 2, the BJP made allegations of widespread post-poll violence from across the state. With petitions filed in the immediate aftermath, the high court took cognizance and in June, the court asked NHRC to form a seven member committee “considering the fact that there was blatant violation of human rights besides violation of other rights of the victims”. The committee submitted its final report on July 13 recommending a CBI probe, and that trials should be held outside the state.

The committee said at least 1,934 complaints were lodged with the state police between May 2 and June 20. They included 29 complaints related to murder, 12 to rape and sexual assault, and 940 of loot and arson with the committee receiving around 1,979 reports covering 15,000 victims.

The order quoted acting chief justice Bindal as saying: “In our opinion, the heinous crimes such as murder and rape deserve to be investigated by an independent agency which in circumstances can only be the Central Bureau of Investigation. It is for the reason that in a number of cases, the State had failed to register the FIRs and opined the same to not be cases of murder. In some cases, even after registration of FIR, the observation by the State is that these may result in ‘no case’. This shows a predetermined mind to take investigation into a particular direction.”

The order comes as a setback to the ruling TMC, with party MP Saugata Roy saying that the handing over of cases to the CBI was a “transgression” on the rights of the state. “I am unhappy with the order. Law and order is a state subject and I think it’s a transgression on the state’s rights as it is not desirable that an external agency like CBI should be allowed to intervene in a state subject repeatedly. We had opposed when the NHRC team submitted its report because some of its members had BJP links. I hope and I expect that the state would go for an appeal against the order,” he said.

According to officials, the CBI has formed four special teams, each headed by a Joint Director (JD) rank officer under overall supervision of an additional director (AD), to investigate the Bengal post-poll violence. The four teams have over two dozen officers and will meet on Friday morning before heading to Kolkata.

The BJP attacked the TMC immediately after the order and said that the court had given a strong message, and that it would not be wrong to call Mamata Banerjee a failed chief minister. “The high court has given a strong message. It should be a milestone as the court has made it clear that anarchy has no place in India. It will not be wrong to call Mamata Banerjee a failed chief minister. A chief minister has to protect all citizens. The court has shown that when administration fails, the judiciary comes to people’s rescue,” BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said.

In its counter affidavit, the state government argued that the committee was set up to spearhead a witch hunt against the Mamata Banerjee administration and was a concerted effort to discredit a democratically elected government. Justice Bindal however wrote, “Though the issue of bias of three members of the committee was sought to be raised, the argument just needs to be noticed and rejected. It seems to be an argument in frustration, where on the core issue the State has been found on a wrong foot.”

In his comments, justice IP Mukerji said parts of the committee’s report that expressed opinion or made recommendations were “non-est” (beyond its jurisdiction) in the eye of the law. Mukerji was critical of the role of the Election Commission of India, saying that it was ECI’s duty to direct or advise the administration to register complaints “which it did not”. In his comments he added that “it is not established that the state has shown apathy to action”, and the investigation process, in his opinion, was at the initial stage.

“Truth will prevail. The CBI probe will help people get justice,” said Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh.

The CPI(M) also charged the state government with framing false charges against opposition leaders, but also charged the NHRC team of only talking to the BJP. “The state government has framed false charges against opposition leaders at random. I never killed a mosquito but there are two murder charges against me in Bengal,” said CPI(M) politburo member Hannan Mollah. CPI(M) central committee member Rabin Deb said, “Nobody visited the home of Kakali Khetrapal, one of our women activists who was murdered at Jamalpur in East Burdwan district on May 3.”